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French Films (Click on "films" for a list of films then click on a title for a summary)
Truffaut
Stolen Portraits
1999, 93 minutes
Directors:
Serge Toubiana, Michel Pascal
Cast: Fanny Ardant, Gérard Depardieu, Nathalie Baye, Marcel
Ophuls, Bernard Tavernier, Eric Rohmer, Laura Truffaut, Ewa
Truffaut, Jeanine Bazin Although François Truffaut is probably
the best-known French film director in the world, most people
know very little about the "man who loved movies."
However, the unexpected twists and turns of Truffaut's life could
easily provide more than one film with a dramatic plot: from his
unhappy childhood and short criminal career to the heady days of
the New Wave, from Truffaut's international recognition as a
director of 21 films, to his tragic, early death from a brain
tumor in 1984. With revealing interviews and clips from the
director's classic films, François Truffaut: Stolen Portraits
explores the full complexity of Truffaut's life, his films, and
the fascinating ways in which they intersect.
Jules and Jim
1961, 104 minutes
Director:
François Truffaut
Story:
François Truffaut, Jean Gruault, based on the novel by
Henri-Pierre Roché
Cinematography:
Raoul Coutard
Music:
Georges Delerue
Cast: Jeanne Moreau, Oskar Werner, Henri Serre, Marie Dubois,
Sabine Haudepin Truffaut's third film is an elegant and
understated masterpiece about the complex relationships between a
Frenchman, an Austrian, and the woman they both love. The film
opens in Paris in 1912, as two aspiring writers, Jules (Oskar
Werner) and Jim (Henri Serre), meet and become soul mates. When
they are introduced to Catherine, both men fall under her
enchantment. This unusual ménage-à-trois endures through war,
marriage, madness and boredom. As Catherine, Jeanne Moreau became
an icon of New Wave cinema: a beautiful, independent, dangerous
woman to whom "everything is permitted."
Stolen Kisses
1968, 90 minutes
Director:
François Truffaut
Screenplay:
Truffaut, Claude de Givray, Bernard Revon
Cinematography:
Denys Clerval
Music:
Antoine Duhamel. Song: "Que reste-t-il de nos amours,"
by Charles Trenet
Cast:Jean-Pierre Léaud, Claude Jade, Delphine Seyrig, Michel
Lonsdale Stolen Kisses is the second feature film in the Antoine
Doinel series, starring Jean-Pierre Léaud from The 400 Blows.
This time when we meet the 20-something Antoine Doinel, he (like
Truffaut) has been discharged from an army prison. His entrance
into adulthood begins when he returns to Paris in search of love
- and a way to make money. Taking an ill-suited job as a private
detective, Doinel goes undercover at a shoe store, only to fall
in love with the owner's stylish wife, played by Delphine Seyrig.
Ironically, although Stolen Kisses was made at the height of
political unrest in Paris (1968), when Truffaut was involved in
demonstrations against the government, it remains one of the
director's most light-hearted and amusing portraits of young
love.
Bed and Board
1970, 100 min.
Director:
François Truffaut
Screenplay:
François Truffaut, Claude de Givray, Bernard Revon
Cinematography:
Nestor Almendros
Music:
Antoine Duhamel
Cast: Jean-Pierre Léaud, Claude Jade, Hiroko Berghauer, M.
Darbon In Bed and Board, Antoine Doinel continues to do the
unexpected - in this case, by trying on the new roles of husband
and father. Doinel, an engaging character who is a fascinating
mix of Truffaut, actor Jean-Pierre Léaud and pure fantasy,
settles down in Paris with the love of his life (Claude Jade). It
is not long, however, before his affections begin to stray, and
we discover that Doinel's restless nature is perhaps the
antithesis of domesticity. "If I had to describe Antoine
Doinel, I'd say that he is ruled by a kind of valor. He's either
extremely profoundly disappointed and desperate to the point
where we fear the worst, or he's in a state of total ecstasy and
enthusiasms. That's what's entertaining about him, and what makes
him unpredictable." - François Truffaut.
Fahrenheit 451
1966, 111 min.
Director:
François Truffaut
Screenplay:
François Truffaut, Jean-Louis Richard and Helen Scott, based on
the book by Ray Bradbury
Cinematography:
Music:
Bernard Herrmann
Cast: Oskar Werner, Julie Christie, Cyril Cusack It is no
surprise that François Truffaut, who survived his troubled
childhood by escaping into countless books (and movies), believed
that reading was an almost sacred activity. This love for books
inspires every frame of Fahrenheit 451, which is based on Ray
Bradbury's story about a frightening future where books are
considered to be dangerous and illegal. Oskar Werner, who starred
in Jules and Jim, plays a "fireman" of the future,
whose job it is to search and destroy books. Once he opens a
volume and begins to read, the fireman himself becomes an
"enemy of the state." Fahrenheit 451 is an intriguing
departure for Truffaut - it is his first color film, shot in the
English language, and it is by far his most overtly political
work.
The Wild Child
1969, 86 min.
Director:
François Truffaut
Screenplay:
François Truffaut and Jean Gruault, based on the memoirs of Dr.
Jean-Marc Gaspard Itard
Cinematography:
Nestor Almendros
Music:
Antonio Vivaldi
Cast: François Truffaut, Jean-Pierre Cargol, Françoise Seigner
In the first film in which Truffaut appears as an actor, he plays
an 18th century doctor who tries to educate a child found in the
woods, where he had grown up without human contact. Although a
true story, the film comes across as a very personal one for
Truffaut. It is a sensitive exploration of a "wild" and
lonely childhood, and the attempts of a mentor to bring that
child into "civilization." Deliberately ambiguous, The
Wild Child is open-ended cinema in the best tradition of The New
Wave - and the American independent filmmakers who followed in
its footsteps. The Wild Child is also the first (of nine) films
that Truffaut would make with the gifted colorist,
cinematographer Nestor Almendros.
The Last Metro
1980, 127 min.
Director:
François Truffaut
Screenplay:
François Truffaut, Suzanne Schiffman, Jean-Claude Grumberg
Cinematography:
Nestor Almendros
Music:
Georges Delerue
Cast: Catherine Deneuve, Gérard Depardieu, Heinz Bennent,
Jean-Loup Cottins, Sabine Haudepin Having lived through the Nazi
Occupation of Paris, Truffaut wanted to make a film set in the
era he felt was incorrectly remembered as a simple conflict
between good and evil. The Last Metro takes place in a Parisian
theater, which is being run by the wife (Catherine Deneuve) of
the Jewish director, who has been forced into hiding. Trouble
comes in the form of her growing affection for her leading man (Gérard
Depardieu, and the constant threat of a Nazi-ordered shut-down.
"The result is a film of love and adventure which, I hope,
expresses our aversion to all forms of racism and intolerance,
but also our profound affection for those who have chosen the
acting profession and who pursue it, come what may." - François
Truffaut.
The Story of Adele H
1975, 97min.
Director:
François Truffaut
Screenplay:
Francois Truffaut and Suzanne Schiffman, based on the diaries of
Adèle Hugo and the book by Frances Guille.
Cinematography:
Nestor Almendros
Music:
Maurice Jaubert
Cast: Isabelle Adjani, Bruce Robinson, Sylvia Marriott In the
late 1970s, the films of François Truffaut showed the director's
growing awareness of melancholy, madness and loss. The Story of
Adèle H. is the true story of Victor Hugo's daughter and her
obsession with a young French lieutenant. Although he does not
return her love, Adèle pursues the lieutenant in almost a trance
of passion, from Guernsey to Nova Scotia to Barbados. Poetically
photographed by Nestor Almendros, The Story of Adèle H. is a
chilling and disturbing film on the romantic ideal taken to its
logical end. Isabelle Adjani is unforgettable in the lead role,
giving Adèle Hugo the dignity of an artist manqué whose genius
is squandered in an unhappy love.
Confidentially Yours
1983, 107 min.
Director:
François Truffaut
Screenplay:
François Truffaut, Suzanne Schiffman, Jean Aurel, based on the
novel The Long Saturday Night by Charles Williams
Cinematography:
Nestor Almendros
Music:
Georges Delerue
Cast: Fanny Ardant, Jean-Louis Trintigant, Philippe Laudenbach,
Caroline Truffaut's final film is a delightful homage to the
American-made film noirs that the director enjoyed in his youth.
Shot in black and white, this graceful mystery disrupts
convention by putting a woman in the lead role as its
detective/hero. Fanny Ardant gives a radiant performance as a
secretary in search of the truth: was her boss (Jean-Louis
Trintignant) really the cold-blooded killer of his wife and her
lover? Just as in Truffaut favorites The Maltese Falcon or Kiss
Me Deadly, Ardant is swiftly immersed in a confusing new world,
filled with eccentric characters and murky moral choices.
Confidentially Yours is infused with great tenderness for Ardant,
who was Truffaut's last great love, as well as his final leading
actress.
Day For Night
1973, 120 min.
Director:
François Truffaut
Screenplay:
François Truffaut, Jean-Louis Richard, Suzanne Schiffman
Cinematography:
Nestor Almendros
Music:
Georges Delerue
Cast: François Truffaut, Jean-Pierre Léaud, Jacqueline Bisset,
Valentina Cortese, Jean-Pierre Aumont François Truffaut was once
quoted as saying, "When I watch a movie, I want it to
express either the joy of making films or the anguish of making
films." In Day For Night, the director goes behind the
scenes to show us both: the egos, screw-ups and complicated
sexual adventures that can plague production, and the rare
moments when cast and crew come together to create a magic on the
screen.It does not matter if Truffaut plays a hack director
making a typical studio romance, and that Jean-Pierre Léaud (in
a hilarious self-parody) plays an out-of-control actor. What
matters, as Truffaut says in the film, are "movies, which
are always more harmonious than life." Academy Award, Best
Foreign Film.
Godard
"A Woman is a Woman (Une femme est une femme) (1961) -
A personal homage (and take) on musicals.
The New World (Il nuevo mondo) from RoGoPaG (1961)-
His post-apocalyptic short contribution to this Italian
anthology. Also features Rosellini, Pasolini, and Gregoretti.
To Live your Life (Vivre sa vie) (1962) -
A sympathetic reflection on the descent of a young woman's
situation; a film based upon close-ups (something of a homage to
Dreyer's Joan of Arc.)
Les Carabiniers (The Riflemen) (1963) -
Detached anti-war film.
Band of Outsiders (Bande á part) (1964) -
Continuing his special regard of youth (see especially Breathless
and Masculin Féminin).
Alphaville (1965) -
His sci-fi flick of a dytopic technocratic world, ruled by logic,
dictated by supercomputer Alpha-60.
Pierrot le fou (1965) -
The first of a series of pivotal films for Godard. A guy flees
from his life to pursue freedom, with a beautiful woman, getting
quite lost along the way. (A film-noir based version of his later
Week-end).
Masculin Féminin (1966) -
The youth of 1965 France in the spotlight: guys and young women,
pursuits of love and burgeoning political militancy versus
pop-stardom and other frivolous stuff.
2 or 3 things I know about her (2 ou 3 choses que je sais d'elle)
(1966) -
A typical day for a fairly typical petit-bourgeois woman, who
pursues prostitution to realise her dreams of a better life. Has
been called Brechtian, a 'film-essay'
Week-end (1967) -
A bourgeois hell. Features the infamous yet distinctively amusing
'traffic scene'
La Chinoise (1967) -
An university student apartment transformed into a base for a
Maoist cell. They attempt to move forward by struggle, learning
as much from mistakes as all other facets of their experience.
One Plus One (1968) -
His British film: musings on possibilities of contemporary
revolution.
1PM = One Parallel Movie (1968) -
Leacock/Pennebaker film, from the footage of the abandoned
collaboration with Godard (1AM = One American Movie). Features
Jefferson Airplane doing their own live rooftop show, with the
song The House at Pooneil Corners.
Love from Love and Anger (Amore e Rabbia) (1969) -
His contribution to the Italian anthology film, another zeitgeist
film, also including short works from Bertolucci
("Agony"), Lizzani ("Apathy"), Pasolini
("Paper Flower Sequence"), and Bellocchio ("Let's
discuss?").
Wind from the East (Vent d'est ) (1969) -
by Dziga-Vertov-Group, a Maoist film-making cell which included
Godard and Gorin (see Tout va bien).
British Sounds (1969) -
Another Dziga-Vertov-Group film, making their concern the
struggle in Britain.
Tout va bien (1972) -
A man, a woman, and France, four years after the possibilities of
May 1968 struggles, asking the intellectual bourgeoisie to keep
questioning their roles in society.
Films in collaboration with Anne-Marie Miéville:
Slow-Motion (Sauve qui peut (la vie)) (1979) -
Their bold re-entry into cinema, setting the form for subsequent
works. Difficult to sum up in one line.
Passion (1982) -
Reflection on what makes his and our lives both a torment of
madness and yet a joy: that is to say, worth living.
The Book of Mary (Le livre de Marie) (1984) -
by Anne-Marie Miéville. A beautiful film on the reactions and
expressions of a young teenage girl forced to face the break-up
of her parents.
Hail Mary (Je vous salue Marie) (1984) -
by J-L Godard. A reflection on the human difficulties of
the virgin Mary in her pregnancy from the immaculate conception.
Woe is Me (Hélas pour moi) (1992) -
'Confusing' is most people's response to this undoubtedly
perplexing film about a murder and the guilt he feels.
2 x 50 Years (Deux fois cinquante ans) -
Their questioning contribution to the BFI's commemoration of the
century of cinema. "